University of Gothenburg
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Björn Billing

Senior Lecturer

Department of Literature, History of Ideas, and Religion
Mail
bjorn.billing@lir.gu.se
Visiting address
Renströmsgatan 6
41255 Göteborg
Room number
C657
Postal address
Box 200
40530 Göteborg

About Björn Billing

Keywords: aesthetics, modernity, environmental history, ecocriticism, landscapes, anthropocene, the Arctic, dinosaurs

My PhD thesis (2000) is an analysis of the German philosopher and composer Theodor W. Adorno and his ideas about the historical development of modern art. In my postdoctoral research project (2001–2004) I studied intersections between philosophy, architecture and music in Vienna around 1900.

In recent years my interest has gravitated towards ideas about nature and the environment. I have developed courses in environmental history and ecocriticism and have been active in several collaboration projects on sustainability, the environment and climate in visual culture, and the Anthropocene. In December 2017 my monograph about Jean-Jacques Rousseau and 18th century ideas about mountains, wilderness and travel was published. Another research interest of mine is dinosaurs and the history of paleontology.

Since 2023 my rearch is primarily conducted within the project Freezing cold. Northern European imaginaries of winter, snow and ice during the Little Ice Age, financed by the Swedish Research Council. I will study encounters with the polar environment of Svalbard, 1596–1818, as conveyed by a selection of travelogues.